Relay assembly fixture



Dec. 8, 1959 s. M. MOCLEAN 5,

RELAY ASSEMBLY FIXTURE Filed Dec. 31, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

BY W'9 %M ATTORNEYS.

Dec. 8, 1959 s. M. MOCLEAN 2,915,814

RELAY ASSEMBLY FIXTURE Filed Dec. 31, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 J76 jya INVENTOR:

United States Patent RELAY ASSEMBLY FIXTURE Stanley M. McClean, Joliet, Ill., assignor to Phillips Control Corporation, Joliet, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application December 31, 1956, Serial No. 631,761

1 Claim. (Cl. 29-238) This invention relates to a relay assembly fixture and particularly one designed for tightening contact assemblies comprising pile-ups of contact springs, insulators and the necessary screws for ultimately retaining them assembled.

One object of the invention is to provide a fixture which can be used for quickly tightening loosely assembled relay pile-ups in a convenient manner by holding and clamping the pile-up until their screws can be tightened to permanently hold the pile-ups assembled for subsequent assembly thereof to the relay actuating coil and armature. The contact assemblies are first loosely assembled to hold the parts thereof together before they are introduced to the fixture.

Another object is to provide a fixture which will automatically align all contact springs of a relay contact assembly and compress the pile of springs and insulators whether there is one or more pile-ups and whether or not the several pile-ups are of different heights, the arrangement being such that the pile-ups are compressed with equal pressure regardless of their number and of their various heights.

Still another object is to provide a pile-up tightening fixture with which a power screw driver may be conveniently used to quickly drive the screws into position to permanently hold the pile-ups assembled, thus eliminating the necessity of driving the screws manually, saving much time compared to manual driving and insuring equal final pressure of all screws in all assemblies by the use of a torque limiting type of power screw driver.

A further object is to provide a fixture with which different contact assembly aligning and holding jigs to fit different relay designs may be quickly associated and the holding jigs being readily operable to be opened to receive a pile-up assembly and closed. to properly align all contact springs thereof and their mating contacts with a high degree of precision.

Still a further object is to provide power means such as a pneumatically or hydraulically operated piston and cylinder arrangement to provide the necessary pressure for tightening the pile-ups.

An additional object is to provide vertically movable pile-up tightening jaws with a bell crank arrangement for imparting motion thereto from a cylinder and piston assembly which is suspended on the bell cranks in such manner that the jaws can make contact with pile-ups of difierent heights yet produce substantially the same tightening pressure on each thereof when the cylinder and piston assembly is operated for tightening the pile-ups.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of my relay assembly fixture, whereby the objects above contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claim and illustrated in detail on the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective viewofa relay assembly fixture 2,915,814 Patented Dec. 8, 1959 showing particularly the operating portion thereof that extends above a work bench;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the central portion of the fixture showing a contact assembly aligning and holding jig pulled to its outer limit of movement to receive the contact assembly, the jig being in open position ready to receive such assembly;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the jig alone with the contact assembly placed in position;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Figs. 2 and 3 except showing the jig closed and pushed into position for the pile-up tightening fixture to operate, the tightening jaws of the fixture being shown in section;

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view on the line 55 0 Fig. 4 showing a latch pin;

Fig. 6 is a front elevation (partly in section) of Fig. 1 showing the normal position of the parts of the fixture;

Fig. 7 is a similar view showing the parts in pile-up tightening position;

Fig. 8 is an enlargement of a portion of Fig.7 as taken on the section line 88 of Fig. 5 and shows two pile-ups of unequal height being tightened by the tightening jaws;

Fig. 9 is a sectional view on the line 9--9 of Fig. 8, to show the compression of the pile-up of contact springs; and insulators, cross sectioning for the springs, insulators and insulation tubes being omitted to avoid confusion of detail;

Fig. 10 is an enlargement of portions of Fig. 9 with the cross sectioning included; and

Fig. 11 isa side elevation of a complete relay after the coil and armature have been assembled to the con tact assembly.

On the accompanying drawings I have used the reference numeral 10 to indicate a work bench top or the like and 12 a mounting plate for my relay assembly fixture. The mounting plate is secured to the bench top 10 as by screws 14 and has tightening jaws l6 and 16 projecting out of openings 15 thereof. The upper ends of the jaws 16 and 16 are provided with four screw driver openings 17, the purpose of which will hereinafter appear.

As shown in Fig. 6, a guide body 18 depends from the mounting plate 12 and has rectangular openings 19:

there-through which guide the tightening jaws 16' and" of -the bell cranks are provided for each of the jaws 16;-

and 16 to equalize pressures on the pivot pins 22 and on other pivot pins 26, 40 and 42 to be later described.

A cylinder 30 having a piston 32 therein is supported on the bell cranks 24 by means of a cylinder ear 36' at one end and a piston rod ear 38 at the other end which piston rod ear is mounted on the outer end of a piston rod 34 in an obvious manner as disclosed in Fig. 6.

In connection with the fixture disclosed I provide a contact assembly aligning and holding jig A (shown per se in Fig. 3) slidably mounted on the mounting plate 12 between a pair of guides 45 thereon. The jig A has a stationary contact spring guide 46 and a pivoted contact spring guide 48. The guide 48 is pivoted at 50 to swing from the open position of Figs. 2 and 3 to the closed position of Fig. 4 and in the closed position a latch pin 52' enters a socket 54 of the base block 44 as shown in Fig. 5 under the action of a spring 56. For unlatching the latch pin 52 from the socket 54 I provide a knob 53 mounted onthe pin 52 which may retract it against the action of springguide 48-is swung to the closed position of-Fi'g'. '4.

The base block A has an opening 60 to receive the heel plate of a contact assembly, four openings 62 to receive the pile-up screws thereof and two sockets 64 to receive the back stops thereof as will later appear herein.

In Figs. 9, 10 and 11, I show a contact assembly C having a number of contact springs 66 with insulators 68 interposed between them and insulating sleeves 70 through the contacts and the insulators with the pile-up screws 72 passing through a top plate 74, through the contact springs, insulators and insulating sleeves, and threaded into a contact mounting plate 76 as illustrated. The plate 76 is L-shaped, having a heel plate 78 as its short arm. The contact assembly C also includes a back stop plate 86 having back stops 82.

In Fig. 11 I show an example of a completely assembled relay with a relay coil 84 mounted on the heel plate 78, an armature 86 pivoted at 88 and an actuating arm 90 extending from the armature 86. The arm 90 carries an insulation button 92 to actuate one of the movable contact springs 66 and the others are likewise actuated through additional insulation buttons 94 carried thereby. If there are two pile-ups on the relay, two of the arms 99 are provided.

In Figs. 6 and 7 I show diagrammatically an air supply pipe 96, a four-way control valve 98 and air connections I and 102 extending to opposite ends of the cylinder 30 to represent one way in which the piston and cylinder assembly can be controlled for the application of power for drawing down the tightening jaws 16 and 16 It will be noted the valve is in the Up position so that air is supplied to the left end of the cylinder 30 for retracting the piston 32 therein thus holding the jaws 16 in their maximum raised position. After the contact assembly C is in position in the jig A, the valve 82 is rotated clockwise to the DN (down) position so that the air from 96 passes through 98 and 102 to the right-hand end of the cylinder 30 and air is exhausted from the left-hand end thereof through 100 to atmosphere, thus drawing the jaws 16 and 16 downwardly for tightening the pile-ups. Two different heights of pile-ups are illustrated in Figs. 7, 8 and 9, and since the cylinder and piston assembly is suspended on the bell cranks 24 it produces substantially equal pull-down pressure on each of the jaws regardless of the distance they travel to contact their respective pilenps. Thus I am assured of substantially equal pressure in each pile-up regardles of variation in their relative heights and also regardless of whether the pile-ups consist of only a few springs or many. The range of the jaws 16 and 16 as disclosed is capable of a maximum of 18 springs instead of the 12 shown under the jaw 16 in Fig. 8. The dimensions, of course, can be varied for a greater number of springs, larger springs and thicker springs and insulator, etc. without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Practical operation In the operation of my relay assembly fixture, the jig A is slid outwardly (toward the operator-downwardly in Fig. 2) until it hits a stop pin 47. The knob 58 is then grasped, lifted and swung toward the operator for opening the pivoted contact spring guide 48 as shown whereupon the previous contact assembly (not shown in Fig. 2) may be removed from the jig and another loosely assembled one inserted as in Fig. 3. The heel plate 78 of the contact assembly C drops into the opening 60 as shown in Fig. 9 and the back stops 82 (see Fig. 11) for the actuating arms 94) drop into the sockets 64 for rough preliminary alignment. The assembly C is then pushed toward the guide 46 so that the terminal lug ends of the contact springs 66 enter notches 67 thereof which notches have divergent sides so as to engage the terminal lug ends even when slightly out of alignment and bring them all into precision alignment by the time assembly (I is all the way back against the guide 46.

The pivoted guide 48 is then swung into position as shown in Fig. 4 and by the time its latch pin 52 enters the latch socket 54, tapered sides of notches 69 in the guide 48 engage the contact ends of the contact springs 66 and align them, accurately centering the contacts carried thereby with respect to each other with a precision and speed not possible of accomplishment by manual sighting and manual holding of the parts while tightening the screws 72 as heretofore practiced. When the jig is in the final closed position, all the contact springs are accurately aligned with maximum precision and the jig may then be pushed from the outer position of Fig. 2 to the inner position of Fig. 4 with stop shoulders 71 thereof engaging the jaws I6 and 16 to accurately locate the screws 72 in alignment with the openings 17 in the jaws 16 and 16 A power screw driver suspended above the jaws may then be quickly brought into position for successively engaging its bit with the screws 72 through the four openings 17 which guide the bit to the screws, or a power screw driver with four bits properly spaced may in one operation be positioned through all four openings 17 to tighten the screws. The power screw driver is preferably provided with torque limiting means or is so designed that a predetermined pressure of air (when of pneumatic type) produces a predetermined torque so that I am assured of all screws 72 being equally tightened to the desired degree. In Fig. 10 the screw 72 is illustrated as loosely holding the contact assembly elements together. Dotted lines show the top plate 74 drawn down and the lower end of the screw through the contact mounting plate as when the screw is tightened.

After the screw driver has been used, the jig may again be pulled out to the position of Fig. 2 for opening the same and removing the completed contact assembly C therefrom.

From the foregoing description it will be obvious that I have provided a relay assembly fixture which will accurately align loosely assembled contact assemblies, and apply tightening pressure to the pile-ups thereof preliminary to permanent tightening by driving the screws thereof home. The fixture permits the use of a power screw driver for this purpose with the operation being performed in a minimum of time and the fixture thereby contributes to the economical mass production of precision relay assemblies.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of my relay assembly fixture without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claim any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may reasonably be included within its scope.

I claim as my invention:

In a relay assembly fixture, a work bench top, a support for a contact assembly having a pair of pile-ups and screws loosely holding the parts thereof together, a tightening jaw slldable through said top and for each pile-up having a pile-up engaging head overhanging said support, said support comprising a jig for receiving said contact assembly, a guide way for said jig for positioning it with the pile-ups under said pile-up engaging heads or spaced therefrom for loading, said jig having means for aligning all of the contact springs of said contact assembly,-

and a hinged wall openable to receive the assembly and closeable to hold it in position, said jig being movable to a first position permitting insertion of a loosely assembled contact assembly and to a second position under said pileup engaging heads, power means for moving said jaws and thereby said heads toward said support, and operative connections between said power means and said jaws for moving them vertically through said top and thereby individually tightening said pile-ups of said contact assembly preparatory to tightening said screws, said operative connectlons comprising linkage connected with each of said jaws and said power means comprising an ex- 5 6 tensible power element having one end connected with 1,869,184 Burr July 26, 1932 one of said linkage and its other end connected with the 2,219,202 Swanson Oct. 22, 1940 other of said linkage. 2,241,794 Stull May 13, 1941 2,526,378 Malhiot Oct. 17, 1950 References Cited in the file of this patent 5 4,3 0 Levetus Jam 5, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,823,719 Baker Sept. 15, 1931 

